October just slipped by. I blinked and it was gone. It started out cold, and ended cold. With a warm and very wet middle. So not too far off from normal weather, no matter what people claim.
We worked on the lower field at the start of the month. The darker side on the right is the part that is new, it hasn’t been planted before.
We will be putting up two hoop houses on it, with plenty of room left, come late winter.
The gravel part to the left is where the cargo container sat for a couple of years. We will be smoothing it out and putting our greenhouse here, in its permanent home.
With having moved the cargo container off of the field, I no longer had my wall of signs. I did however have a wooden post left over from a political sign last year, so I made it my new sign post!
Rooster hanging out with the ducks.
We worked on getting the beds ready for the coming cold.
I harvested most of the beets at the end of the month.
Wherever we have chipped wood piles, the fungi shows up with the first rains of fall.
They especially love Alder trees being chipped. The fungi is so good for the soil.
As the trees turned yellow and orange, in the 3rd week of October the Olympic Mountains got their first snow dusting.
I love random flowers that grow from seeds that blew in the wind. These I grew 2 years ago a bed away.
As October slid into November we dropped under 10 hours daylights. It’s dark out.
On sunny days it is good still. The chickens waffle from 1 to 8 eggs a day. A number of the hens are in winter mode for now. And that is OK. I lost another hen to an eagle attack at the end of the month. I hate when they kill and rip the hen up, but don’t take her. It’s so wasteful. But the key is to have enough hens (more than you think you need) to help with losses.
And at the end of the month, the skies cleared and we got cold mornings. It said 37, but it definitely had the first light frost.
On to the deep parts of fall, and into winter. These are the weeks for planning and dreaming about next spring’s gardens. Checking on the hens daily. And staying inside toasty as the days slip by.
~Sarah